>Secondus 2,
City-world, 300 years after the liberation of Armageddon, the Imperial
Palace<
"Commander!
We can´t hold them any longer!"
"Listen here, brother Lexicanum! We´ll fight to death, if so
nessesary!" Grand Commander McGranth roared back to Master Lexicanum
McKenzie over the horrendous roar of Dark Eldar and Guardsmen siege.
"Fight for what?! The Emperor was shot to pieces two minutes ago! The
Imperium is no more!"
"We still have Commissar Sebastian Yarrick to defend! He´s the highest
ranked officer right now!"
"Commander?" Lieutenant Charleston said as he put his hand on Grand
Commander Eddie McGranth´s, by now heavily scarred, left shoulder-pad. "I´ve
got bad news. The Commissar just got shot in the head by a Dark Eldar
laser-cannon. We have nothing to fight for except our survival."
Grand Commander Eddie McGranth lowered his head and looked at his feet. There
his eyes stayed for a moment until he looked up at Master Lexicanum Edward
McKenzie.
"Is the Warp gate safe enough for human travelling?" he asked.
"Theoretically; yes, but I´m not sure when it comes to reality. It´s just
a prototype."
"Typically him." Grand Commander McGranth thought to himself.
"Then there´s only one way to find out if it works, Master Lexicanum. Use
the probe on Terra as a beacon and make sure we end up 300 years backwards in
time."
"It´s possible, but I´m not sure the probe still works. Why, if I may ask,
Terra?"
"I think I found our saviours. Remember the three Space Outlaws? If they
could beat Lord Kevlinn, they´ll have no problems with Kharn the
Betrayer."
"I belive I get the point. I´ll try to open a passage way."
Just then, Lieutenant Charleston came back after a quick battle-field wiew.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" Grand Commander McGranth asked.
"I´ve got really bad news." Lieutenant Charleston panted. "The
Dark Eldar has broken through the first line of 1st company Terminators, almost
none left, and the 3rd company is down on reserves. And on top of that,
Berzerkers and Genestealers has been seen along with the Dark Eldar."
"What about the other companies?"
"Well, 2nd, 4th and 10th is wiped out completly. 5th to 9th, our reserve
companies, are in the midst of battle too. And Lord Kharn the Betrayer has been
seen along with a Dark Eldar Archon and a Genestealer Magus."
"Oh Emperor have mercy." Grand Commander McGranth sighed. "Are
you done soon with that Warp gate, Master Lexicanum?"
"Just a couple of more minutes." came the reply.
Three
Genestealers broke through the wall at Grand Commander McGranth´s left side. One
of the Genestealers was quick enough to rush up and cut Grand Commander
McGranth´s on the right side of his belly. The Terminator armour he was wearing
offered no protection.
But before the Genestealer could kill him completly, Master Lexicanum McKenzie
had given all three Genestealers a shower of psi power. The only thing left of
the Genestealers was their smouldering, chintinous carapace.
"How are you, Commander?" Master Lexicanum McKenzie asked.
"Fine." GC McGranth answered gasping. "Get that Warp gate up and
and running. Now!"
And Master Lexicanum McKenzie did as he was told. In less then two minutes, he
had focused a small amount of warp-energy upon the probe on Terra, 300 years
back in time. And with a easy flick of a switch the warp-hole opened. The three
Space Marines walked into it and it closed itself a couple seconds after they
had walked into it.
*****************
>Terra (aka
Earth), 12.00 p.m local time, nearby a well known cul-de-sac<
"Can
you smell the air of freedom, guys?" Master Lexicanum McKenzie said as he
sniffed the air.
"Maybe, but it´s hard to do it when you got a serious belly-wound."
the snapping answer came from Grand Commander McGranth.
"I´ll take care of it. Take off the armour."
"What?" the unison reply came from Lieutenant Charleston and Grand
Commander McGranth.
"If we are going blend in with everybody here, we´ll need to take off the
armour we´re wearing."
"Alright, alright. But what will we do with the weaponry and the
armour?" Lieutenant Charleston asked.
"Hide it at the dump of course. No one will look there for futuristic
armour."
"What!?" the unison reply came again.
"No way I´m gonna throw away my Plasma Pistol." Lieutenant Charleston
said.
"Arghh."
"Don´t argue against me now Lieutenant! Our Commander is going to die if
we don´t do so."
"Yes sir." came the reply from Lieutenant Charleston.
And so Master Lexicanum McKenzie and Lieutenant Charleston took off their
armour and after that they helped Grand Commander McGranth with his armour. McKenzie
set away Charleston to hide it well at the nearby dumpster, while he took
McGranth to a nearby house.
Double
D woke up by a weird noise from downstairs. As he thought it was Ed
sleep-walking again, he didn´t bother to take Jim with him.
As he walked down the stairs he looked into the kitchen. No one was there.
"Maybe I´m finally loosing my marbles. I´m hearing sounds in the middle of
the night." he said quietly to himself.
"No, you´re not." a voice behind him said, followed by a the sound of
a pair of scissors snipping.
"Huh?" Double D said as he turned round. He saw a fairly large figure
sitting by an almost as large figure who was lying on the couch. The figure
looked up and revealed a face that looked almost as Double D, just a bit older.
"Ahhh.." Double D shouted , but was stopped from further shouting by
a hand that appeared from the darkness behind him. He looked back and upwards
at a even taller figure than the one by the couch. A closer look at the face revealed
him to be Charleston. McGranth sat up from the couch and pulled on a T-shirt to
hide the scar from the needle which had sewed him together.
"Please be quiet." McKenzie said. "I don´t wanna wake your
parents."
Charleston removed his hand from Double D´s mouth. It wasn´t completly by his
own will. Double D had forced the hand from his face.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I´m Eddie McGranth, he beside me is Edward McKenzie and the one behind
you is Ed Charleston."
"I think I´m gonna faint. You guys are just like me and my two friends. Just
older."
"Why doesn´t he remember, McKenzie?" McGranth asked.
McKenzie thought for a while, then he said:
"I think I know why."
With a small gesture of his hand, a little lightning bolt flew from his hand
and hit Double D´s forehead. He´d gotten back all the memory he had from his
adventures as a Space Outlaw.
"I belive we need to do that with all three of them, Eddie." McKenzie
said to McGranth.
(To avoid confusion, and long sentences, I´m referring Grand Commander Eddie
McGranth as McGranth, Master Lexicanum Edward McKenzie as McKenzie and
Lieutenant Ed Charleston as Charleston. The original Eds go by their old
names.)
By now Double D had gotten back from the shock of seeing the Space Marine
leaders again.
"Why are you here then? It must be very serious." he asked.
"Indeed it is, but we´ll tell you more if you call for your friends."
McKenzie answered.
"It´s in the middle of the night. It would be more wise to go over to them
personally."
"Of course we can do that, but you´d better get dressed properly."
Double D now realized he was talking to three celebreties in his all-in-one
pyjamas.
"Ooops." he said and blushed. After that he ran upstairs and got
dressed.
McGranth looked at McKenzie, who just gave him a look that said; "I know
just as much as you."
"What have you got in your hand?" Charleston asked McKenzie.
"Oh, this." McKenzie said and opened his hand. In his hand he held in
three small crystal balls.
"What are those?" McGranth asked.
"It´s the Space Outlaw armour of the three youngsters. I belive it might
come in handy."
"In such small balls?"
"Warp-technology is really amasing." Double D came back down. Now
firstly did he notice what the Space Marine leaders had as civilian clothing.
Charleston was wearing a blue and white striped T-shirt and dark green pants. He
was wearing a pair of black shoes.
McKenzie was wearing a camo-green shirt and dark blue jeans. His shoes was in
the same green colour as his shirt.
McGranth was wearing a black T-shirt with a armless jeans-jacket above that and
the same clolour on his pants as Charleston. His shoes were also black.
"What are you waiting for?" Double D finally got out of himself.
"Nothing." McGranth said. "Let´s go get your friends."
And so they went out to get Eddy and Ed and recall the Space Outlaws.
>Secondus 2,
Tower of Despair (ex Imperial Palace)<
Lord
Kharn walked the hallways, thinking of his great ashievement. This wasn´t
possible before he allied with Hive Fleet Behemoths Genestealer cult and the
Dark Eldarain. And he had even destroyed the last parts of the Space Marine
Legions. But something wasn´t right. Like he had missed something. Then he
remembered.
"By Khaine! The three Genestealers I sent out to destroy the Space Marine
leaders never returned. They must have escaped! But how?"
"Venerable Lord Kharn! We´ve found a warp passage that is functionable,
but it doesn´t have any traces of the last coordinates." Dark Eldar Archon
Draconis shouted.
"Then I give you the responsability to find them, Draconis."
"Yes, Lord Kharn. It will be a pleasure."
"And when you´re done, I want three of your most bloodthirsty
Sybarites."
"Of course, Lord Kharn." Draconis said and rushed off.
"I´ll have much fun in offering those Sybarites to Khaine so I can have
some deamons in my horde." Kharn said quietly to himself. Then he bellowed
out a hideous laugh, so evil no one could match it.
"I´m a marked one, Khaine! No one can stop my berzerker rage! No
one!!" he roared between the laughs.
>Earth, the
cul-de-sac 6.00 a.m, Eddy´s bedroom<
"So
what brings you here?" Eddy asked the three Space Marine leaders.
"Lord Kharn." McKenzie replied softly.
"Who´s Lord Kharn?" Ed asked. "Is it some sort of space
knight?"
"How can I put it?" McGranth said. "Remember Lord Kevlinn?"
"How can we forget?" Eddy said sarcastically.
"Well, when Lord Kevlinn came back, he was even more evil and
bloodthirsting. He could even kill his own warriors sometimes, giving him the
nickname Lord Kharn the Betrayer."
"And this evilness comes from that he´s a marked one of Khaine." McKenzie
added.
"What´s so special with being a marked one?" Double D asked.
"It means a deamon lives inside him. And when Kharn has accomplished a
certain task, he will turn into a deamon." Charleston said.
"And he´ll probably send Genestealers after us firstly." McGranth
said.
"Genestealers!?" the Eds shouted in unision.
"And after that he´ll probably come with some lesser deamons he´s summoned
using Dark Eldar Sybarites." McGranth added.
"Dark Eldar!? More deamons!?" the Eds shouted again in unision.
"Yes, sadly so." McKenzie said with a sad voice.
"And I though we blew that bastard to bits on Armageddon. Hah!"
McGranth said to himself.
Now, something went up to Eddy.
"But, if you´re here, where´s the Emperor?" he asked.
"Dead." the unison reply came from the Space Marine leaders.
"What about the Sisters of Battle?" Double D asked.
"Dismissed, and dead by age."
"And what about Commissar Rolf Yarrick?" Ed asked.
"He died many years ago, by age. He made Armageddon into a flourishing
city-planet." McKenzie said.
"So all we cared for as Space Outlaws is gone?" Eddy asked.
"Sadly it is that way." McGranth said and stood up.
"Where´re you going?" Eddy asked.
"To check something, ya coming too, Eddy?"
"Sure, c´mon Ed and Double D."
Both Charleston and Ed stood up and followed Eddy and McGranth outside. So did
Double D, but was stopped by a well meaning hand from McKenzie.
"The young psyker stays with me."
"Have it your way, Edward." McGranth said and left with the other
three.
"Why can´t I follow with them?" Double D asked. "You´re not my
dad."
"I want you to have this." McKenzie said and handed him a small
firery red crystal.
"What´s this?" Double D asked.
"It´s a small spell. Crush the crystal between your hands to let the fire
loose."
"Won´t I be hurt by it?"
"It doesn´t hurt the caster."
"Ok, I´ll keep it until the moment is right." Double D said and put
it in his pocket.
"Fine. Now let´s join the others." McKenzie said and walked out with
Double D.
As they walked up with Ed, Eddy, Charleston and McGranth, Double D asked
McGranth what they were going to do.
"We´re gonna check so our armour is left alone." the cold reply came.
"Lord Kharn won´t rest until our skulls has been laid before Khaines Skull
Throne." McKenzie added.
"All six of us?" Eddy asked.
"Yes, all six of us." Charleston answered.
And
so, the Space Outlaws were awakened again. But this time, the fight was going
to be hold on home ground, namely the cul-de-sac.